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You can use #pragma comment(lib...) to specify linker options in Microsoft C++

Article ID: 153901

Article Last Modified on 6/14/2006

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Visual C++ 4.0 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q153901

SYMPTOMS

The comment pragma allows the user to insert comments into an object file or executable file. The lib specifier allows the user to pass this comment to the linker to specify additional libraries to link when using the object module. Some users utilize the lib comment pragma to add linker options as well as library names, such as:

   #pragma comment(lib, "MSVCRT -VERBOSE")

This line, under Visual C++ 2.x, would pass the string to the linker as is, resulting in the addition of the /VERBOSE linker option as well as the MSVCRT.LIB library. This behavior was not specified to work in this manner. The compiler wouldn't put quotes around comment string, so spaces would delimit the text.

In Visual C++ 4.x and later, the compiler correctly puts quotes around the comment string thereby causing the above code to generate the following error:

LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file "MSVCRT -VERBOSE.lib"

RESOLUTION

Use the following new pragma to specify linker options:

#pragma comment(linker, "<linker options>")

STATUS

This behavior is by design.

MORE INFORMATION

Sample code to reproduce the behavior:

// Compile options needed: none
// Compile the code in Visual C++ 4.x or later
// test.c

#pragma comment(lib,"MYLIBRARY -VERBOSE")

void main(void)
{
}

You will receive the following error message:

LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file "MYLIBRARY -VERBOSE.lib"

REFERENCES

For more information about#pragma directives , see the following MSDN Web site:

Pragma Directives

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/vclang/html/_predir_pragma_directives.asp

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Microsoft KB Archive/153901

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